Summary: Investors are increasingly demanding their investments do good, for their money to make a positive impact on society and the environment, and to make a return. Private equity funds have not been immune to this movement. In this podcast, Diana Noble, former CEO, CDC Group Plc and Non-Executive Director, Court of Directors, Bank of England and Michele Giddens, Co-founder and Partner, Bridges Fund Management, evaluate the rise of impact investing with Josh Lerner, Head of the Entrepreneurial Management Unit and the Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking, Harvard Business School. They discuss the origins of the impact movement, the trade-offs that can be involved, impact’s role in reducing inequality, the meaning of the ‘impact label’ and whether impact can answer the big questions facing capitalism and the world today. The panel was part of the 12th Annual Private Equity Symposium hosted at LBS in June 2019 by Private Equity at LBS with support from the Private Capital Project at Harvard Business School, with funding from the Division of Research and Faculty Development and the Joshua J. Harris Alternative Investments Program, The Wharton School and CBID Capital International. This podcast is introduced by Florin Vasvari, Professor of Accounting at LBS and co-author of the book ‘International Private Equity’, with Eli Talmor, Professor of Accounting and Founder of Private Equity at LBS.
